University  of  Calif  ornia  •  Berkeley 


Coronado's  Expedition 
in  1540 

From  the  City  of  Mexico  to  the 
Seven  Cities  of  Cibola 

Bancroft  Library 

V/   T>  /  * 

Address 

Before  the  Arizona  Archaeological  Society 
By  Dr.  Merrill  P.  Freeman 

N 


Tucson,  Arizona 

March  19 

1917 


Coronado's  Expedition  in  1540 

From  the  City  of  Mexico  to  the 
Seven  Cities  of  Cibola 

Address 

Before  the  Arizona  Archaeological  Society 
Bv  Dr.  Merrill  P.  Freeman 


1  wonder  whether  you  may  not 
be  justified  in  characterizing  the 
statement  as  being  somewhat  para 
doxical  if  I  tell  you  that  the  first 
"white  man"  to  set  foot  within  the 
confines  of  the  State  of  Arizona  was 
a  jet  black  negro  from,  the  north  of 
Africa,  one  Estevan  or  Estevanico. 
Tlis  distinction  should,  in  a  meas 
ure  at  least,  compensate  Estevan  for 
the  loss  of  his  life  that  followed. 
There  is  slight  evidence  that  Juan 
de  la  Asuncion  preceded  the  North 
African  by  a  possible  year,  but  this 
is  not  sufficiently  well  authenticated 
to  give  it  credence. 

Expedition  Leaves  Spain 

On  June  17th,  in  the  year  1527, 
five  vessels  set  sail  from  the  western 
coast  of  Spain  for  that  western  coun 
try  the  discovery  of  whose  existence 
had  so  recently  awakened  an  old 
world  from  its  centuries  of  ignor 
ance.  Carrying  some  six  hundred 
people,  colonists,  soldiers,  etc.,  after 
a  somewhat  stormy  voyage  these  ves 
sels,  stopping  for  a  time  en  route, 
arrived  on  the  coast  of  Florida  in 
the  month  of  April  of  the  following 
yeai,  or  just  nine  years  after  the 
arrival  of  Cortex  on  the  coast  of 
Mexico,  and  the  beginning  of  his 
romantic  career  of  conquest.  Of- 
those  reaching  the  new  world,  with 


the  exception  of  the  considerable 
number  who  returned  with  the  ships 
which  brought  them  over,  but  four 
ever  again  saw  the  light  of  civiliza 
tion.  These  four  were  Nunez  Cabeza 
de  Vaca,  Andres  Dorantes,  Alonzo 
del  Castillo  Maldonado,  and  Este 
van,  or  Estevanico,  the  negro  from 
the  west  coast  of  Morocco,  a  slave 
of  Dorantes. 

Wanderings  of  Castaways 

Finally  reaching  some  point  on 
the  coast  west  of  the  Mississippi 
river  these  four  gradually  made 
their  way  across  the  State  of  Texas, 
suffering  great  hardships  and  living 
among  the  Indians,  by  whom  at 
times  they  were  held  as  slaves,  sep 
arated  and  'then  again  coming  to 
gether,  they  finally  reached  the  Rio 
Grande  river  which  they  crossed  at 
some  point  below  El  Paso,  then 
across  the  State  of  Chihuahua  and 
through  the  Sierra  Madre  range  of 
mountains  into  Sonora,  and  finally, 
after  eight  years  of  these  wander 
ings  from  the  date  of  their  landing 
in  Florida  they  reached  the  Sonora 
river  at  a  point  to  which  they  gave 
the  name  of  Corazones  (Hearts). 
This  point  is  now  identified  as  bein.^ 
the  present  site  of  Ures,  about  fifty] 
miles  above  Hermosillo,  on  the  Son-/ 
ora  river. 

Pursuing  their  journey  on  toward 
the   south,    after    a   time   they    came 


£725- 


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VIs 


in  contact  with  a  party  or  Spaniards 
who  had  come  up  from  the  City  of 
Mexico  in  quest  of  Indians  whom 

"they were    capturing    and    forcing 

into  slavery.  Following  their  meet 
ing  with  the  Spaniards,  in  due  course 

Cabeza  de  Vaca  and  his  companions 
were  conducted  to  the  City  of  Mex 
ico,  where  they  were  most  kindly 
received  by  the  viceroy.  And  thus 
ended  their  eight  years  of  wander 
ing  and  hardships. 

Reports  of  Rich  Cities 
Some  time  prior  to  1539  it  was 
reported  in  the  City  of  Mexico  that 
far  away  in  the  distant  north  there 
were  seven  large  cities.  In  fact, 
these  cities  were  comparable  to  the 
City  of  Mexico  in  size.  An  Indian 
claimed  to  have  personally  visited 
them  with  his  father  who  had 
brought  back  from  there  a  large 
amount  of  gold  and  silver.  It  was 
further  claimed  that  in  these  cities 
there  were  whole  streets  of  workers 
in  silver.  On  the  strength  of  these 
reports  a  force  of  Spaniards  and 
Indians  was  organized  for  the  pur 
pose  of  visiting  these  reported  rich 
cities,  which  became  known  as  the 
Se\en  Cities  of  Cibola.  This  expe- 

ilion,  however,  got  no  farther  north 
than  the  city  of  Culiacan,  in  the 
State  of  Sinaloa.  This  story  of  these 
great  riches  very  naturally  excited 
the  cupidity  of  the  Spaniards,  but 
no  further  effort  was  made  to  dis 
cover  them  until  1539. 

Following  the  advent  in  the  City 
of  Mexico  of  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  who 
in  a  measure  confirmed  the  report 
of  the  Indian  who  claimed  to  have 
visited  these  cities,  Cabeza  de  Vaca 
ha\ing  in  his  wanderings  heard  of 
some  villages  where  the  houses  were 
four  or  five  stories  high,  new  inter 
est  was  aroused  and  in  due  course 
a  second  attempt  was  made  to  reach 
tho  Seven  Cities  of  Cibola  with  their 
untold  riches. 

Estevan  Killed  by  Zimies 
The  chief  character  promoting  this 


was  Francisco  Vasquez  Coronado,  Dy 
whom,  under  the  auspices  of  Viceroy 
Mersdoza,  an  expedition  was  organ 
ized  with  Coronado  at  its  head.  Coro 
nado  sent  ahead  one  Fray  Marcos 
of  Nizza,  who  was  accompanied  by 
Estevan,  the  negro  from  the  north 
of  Africa,  the  slave  of  Dorantes,  in 
search  of  the  country  and  for  con 
firmation  of  what  had  been  told. 
Fray  Marcos  in  turn  sent  Estevan, 
accompanied  by  a  number  of  Indians, 
on  in  advance.  These  reached  the 
Seven  Cities  of  Cibola,  of  which  they 
were  in  search,  and  found  them  to 
be  simply  villages  of  the  Zuni  In 
dians,  in  the  northwest  corneit  of1 
New  Mexico,  near  the  Arizona  line. 
Here  the  indiscretions  of  Estevan 
cost  him  his  liffj,  he  being  put  to 
death  by  the  Zunies.  On  his  death, 
tne  Indians  accompanying  him  im 
mediately  returned  and  reported  to 
Fray  Marcos,  who  notwithstanding 
the  ill  fate  of  Estevan,  determined 
to  push  on  and  see  these  villages 
himself.  This  he  did,  until  coming 
in  sight  of  them  and  viewing  them 
from  a  distance,  he  started  on  his 
return  to  make  his  report  to  Coro 
nado.  I  think  that  in  justice  to 
Fray  Marcos  I  should  say  that  in 
my  opinion  the  good  padre  through 
fear  did  not  get  near  enough  to 
learn  the  true  character  of  the  vil 
lages  and  was  himself  deceived.  The 
nature  of  his  report  may  be  judged 
by  the  fact  that  steps  were  imme 
diately  taken  to  complete  the  organi 
zation  of  the  expedition. 

Expedition  ^Leaves  Oompostela 

This  expedition  on  February  23, 
1540,  left  Compostela,  a  town  of 
considerable  importance  at  that 
time,  now,  however,  but  a  dilapi 
dated  little  Mexican  village  about 
twenty  miles  from  Tepic.  For  our 
information  in  regard  to  the  expedi 
tion  we  must  depend  on  one  Cas- 
taneda,  who  was  the  chief  chronicler, 
and  whom  Coronado  probably  picked 


up  at  Cullacan  as  he  passed  by,  and 
to  which  place  he  returned  after  the 
expedition  and  where  he  wrote  his 
Relacion  (Narrative)  twenty  years 
later.  In  addition  to  Castaneda, 
Captain  Jaramillo,  one  of  Coronado's 
officers,  wrote  a  much  shorter  ac 
count,  and  in  addition  to  this  we 
have  the  personal  letters  of  Coro 
himself. 


I  shall  not  attempt  to  follow  Coro- 
nado  on  his  journey,  but  shall  only 
refer  to  the  keen  disappointment  he 
must  have  experienced  when  he 
realized  that  the  Seven  Cities  of 
Cibola  of  which  he  had  come  in 
search,  with  all  of  their  riches  of 
gold  and  silver  and  their  "streets 
of  silver  workers"  were  but  a  group 
of  Indian  villages. 

Route  of  Coronado  Traced 
My  purpose  is  simply  to  trace  the 
route  that  Coronado  followed  on  his 
journey,  a  question  on  which  there 
is   much   difference   of   opinion.     To 
aid   us   in   reaching   our  conclusions 
we  have  but  the  three  sources  here- 
(  totore  mentioned  :     Castaneda,  Jara- 
\millo  and  Coronado  himself. 

After  leaving  Culiacan  in  what  is 
/  now  the  State  of  Sinaloa,  we  can 
1  definitely  locate  him  at  Corazones. 
^After  he  left  there,  however,  the 
description  of  his  route  may  not 
enable  us  to  positively  identify  it. 
It  hinges  on  the  location  of  Chi- 
chilticalli,  a  house  or  ruin  at  that 
time  standing  in  the  southern  part 
of  Arizona  and  described  by  Cas 
taneda.  If  we  can  positively  estab 
lish  this  location,  then  the  key  to 
his  route  through  Arizona  is  found, 
as  he  passed  by  this  house.  But 
this  is  the  point  on  which  writers 
fail  to  agree.  Early  writers!  accept 
ed  Casa  Grande  as  the  house  re 
ferred  to.  As  it  was  the  only  one 
still  standing  in  Arizona  and  was 
known  to  have  been  standing  150 
years  before,  the  natural  inference 
that  it  must  have  been  the  house 


referred  to.  Modern  writers,  now- 
ever,  pretty  generally  reject  this 
viow. 

Chichilticalli,  R«d  House 

Chichilticalli  is  Aztec  for  red 
house,  and  is  made  up  of  the  words, 
chichiltic,  red,  and  calli,  house.  All 
three  of  the  writers  mention  it  by 
name,  so  also  does  Pray  Marcos. 
Castaneda,  however,  describes  it, 
saying  that  "the  house  was  large 
and  believed  to  have  been  a  fort 
ress."  He  further  says:  "It  was 
made  of  colored  or  reddish  earth." 
In  another  place  he  tells  us  that  it 
"was  a  tumble-down  house  without 
any  roof,"  and  reiterating  what  he 
had  previously  said,  he  tells  us  that 
"the  building  was  made  of  red 
earth." 

Personal  Conclusions 

With  apologies,  I  shall  take  the 
liberty  of  stating  my  own  conclu 
sions  first,  and  follow  these  with  the 
claims  of  such  other  writers  as  are 
worthy  of  consideration.  My  own 
conclusions  are  that  Chichilticalli 
(Red  House)  was  either  Casa 
Grande  (Big  House),  still  standing 
between  the  station  by  that  name 
on  the  Southern  Pacific  railroad  and 
Florence,  or  it  was  at  Pueblo  Viejo 
(OM  Town),  an  ancient  Indian  town 
near  Solomonville  on  the  Gila  river. 
If  Casa  Grande  filled  the  require 
ments,  if  it  were  a  red  house,  or 
were  there  any  evidence  that  it  ever 
wis  such  or  could  have  been,  pos 
sibly  it  might  continue  to  be  accept 
ed  as  the  Chichilticalli  of  Coronado's 
time,  and  his  route  would  be  defi 
nitely  determined,  but  Casa  Grande 
was  of  mud,  and  there  is  no  soil  in 
its  vicinity  with  even  a  tinge  of  red 
in  it,  nor  is  there  any  material  with 
which  the  building  could  have  been 
colored  red.  However,  Dr.  J.  Wal 
ter  Fewkes  of  the  Smithsonian  Insti 
tution,  speaking  of  his  excavations 
at  Casa  Grande,  say?  that  "it  cannot 
be  denied  that  the  outer  wall  of 


this  building  has  a  marked  reddish 
color  on  its  surface."  There  is  no 
doubt  that  this1  old  building  was 
standing  in  Coronado's  time,  al 
though  he  may  not  have  seen  it, 
and  we  have  no  positive  knowledge 
of  any  other  except  in  its  immediate 
neighborhood  either  then  or  since. 
There  is  no  mention  of  any  from 
that  day  to  this,  if  we  except  Chi- 
chilticalli  and  admit  its  being  a  dif 
ferent  house  from  this  one. 

Father  Kino  Sees  Casa  Grande 

Probably  the  first  white  man  to 
seo  Casa  Grande,  excluding  the  pos 
sibility  of  its  having  been  the  Chi 
chilticalli  of  Coronado's  time,  was 
Father  Kino,  who  visited  it  in  1694, 
being  directed  to  it  by  the  Indians. 
He  visited  it  again  in  1697.  Mange, 
who  accompanied  him  this  time, 
tells  us  of  a  dozen  other  buildings 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Casa 
Grande.  These  other  buildings,  as 
well  as  Casa  Grande  itself,  must 
have  been  there  in  Coronado's  time, 
whether  he  saw  them  or  not,  and, 
very  naturally,  in  a  much  better 
condition,  as  150  years  had  inter 
vened.  Mange  was  told  of  other 
ruins  "a  day's  journey  to  the  north 
on  another  stream"  flowing  into  the 
Gila.  These  must  have  been  the 
Salt  river  valley  ruins  near  Tempe. 
Coronado  at  Corazones 

The  last  place  at  which  we  can 
positively  locate  Coronado  is  Coro- 
zoiies,  on  the  Sonora  river.  Being 
on  a  river,  the  logical  presumption 
is  that  he  followed  up  that  river  as 
long  as  he  could  do  so  without 
deviating  too  much  from  his  course. 
This  would  bring  him  to  the  head  of 
the  Sonora  river,  to  the  east  of 
Cananea,  not  far  from  the  head  of 
the  San  Pedro,  and  although  still 
farther  than  the  San  Pedro,  yet  not 
very  far1  from  the  head  of  the  Santa 
Cruz.  It  seems  to  me  reasonable  to 
assume  that  after  leaving  the  Sonora 
river  he  struck  the  head  of  one  or 


the  other  of  these  two  streams,  and 
having  done  so,  he  naturally  fol 
lowed  down  its  valley  so  long  as 
it  did  not  take  him  too  far  from  his 
regiilar  course.  Assuming  that  the 
river  which  he  struck  was  the  Santa 
Cruz,  he  must  have  come  down  this 
valley,  passing  the  site  of  the  old 
San  Xavier  mission,  until  he  reached 
the  site  of  Tucson.  There,  finding 
that  the  valley  was  taking  him  away 
from  his  course,  he  left  it  and  skirt 
ing  the  western  base  of  the  Cata- 
lina  range  of  mountains  he  reached 
Casa  Grande,  the  Chichilticalli  of 
which  he  had  been  hearing  as  he 
approached  it. 

Location  of  Chichilticalli 

But  if  instead  of  striking  the 
Santa  Cruz,  he  came  to  the  head  of 
the  San  Pedro,  this  he  followed  down 
to,  we  will  say,  the  vicinity  of  Ben 
son,  when,  finding  that  the  trend 
of  this  stream  was  taking  him  too 
far  west,  hej  left  the  San  Pedro  and 
struck  off  to  the  east  of  north,  and 
should  he  have  pursued  an  air  line 
from  Benson  to  the  Zuni  villages  he 
would  have  found  Pueblo  Viejo  di 
rectly  in  his  path  and  Chichilticalli 
awaiting  his  coming. 

There  is  one  other  possibility,  as, 
for  instance,  near  Tempe  in  the  Salt 
river  valley,  where  Cushing  did  his 
excavating  several  years  ago,  evi 
dently  the  ruins  referred  to  by 
Mange  in  1697,  but  there  is  no  point 
possessing  the  strong  probability  of 
Pueblo  Viejo. 

In  its  favor  is  the  fact  that  its 
location  is  directly  on  the  logical 
route  that  Coronado  should  have 
taken  if  he  knew  just  where  the 
Seven  Cities  of  Cibola  were  located, 
and  Pray  Marcos  must  have  been 
directed  to  them  by  Indian  guides 
whom  he  picked  up  en  route  and 
who  must  have  been  perfectly  famil 
iar  with  their  location  and  the  route 
to  them.  What  seems  to  me  as  con 
clusive  proof  that  the  house  referred 


to  was  at  Pueblo  Viejo  is  Jaramillo's 
tracing  of  the  route  they  followed. 
He  says:  "From  here" — some  place 
on  the  head  waters  of  the  Sonora 
river — "we  went  through  a  deserted 
country  for  about  four  days  to  an 
other  river,  which  we  heard  called 
Nexpa" — (San  Pedro).  "We  went 
down  this  stream  two  days" — to  the 
vicinity  of  Benson — "and  then  left 
the  stream,  going  toward  the  right 
to  the  foot  of  the  mountain  chain" 
— Graham  mountains — "in  two  days' 
journey,  where  we  heard  news  of 
what,  is  called  Chichiltic  Calli.  Cross 
ing  the  mountains,  we  came  to  a 
deep  and  ready  river" — the  Gila, 
near  Pueblo  Viejo.  "Then  from  this 
river  back  at  Nexpa,  as  I  have  said, 
it  seems  to  me  the  direction  was 
nearly  northeast."  He  undoubtedly 
means,  to  convey  the  idea  that  their 
course  was  nearly  northeast  from 
the  Nexpa  river. 

Views  of  Other  Writers 

Having  stated  my  own  position  as 
clearly  as  possible,  I  shall  now  take 
up  the  claims  of  a  number  of  other 
writers,  in  fact,  all  of  whom  I  have 
knowledge,  whose  views  are  worthy 
of  consideration.  For  the  possible 
reason  that  his  views  so  nearly 
coincide  with  my  own  I  shall  first 
take  up  Mr.  F.  W.  Hodge  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  Washing 
ton,  D.  C.,  a  man  for  whose  opinions 
I  have  so  high  a  regard  that  they 
would  have  largely  influenced  mine 
had  I  known  them  before  reaching 
my  own  conclusions. 

In  his  comment  on  Castaneda's 
mention;  of  Chichilticalli,  Mr.  Hodge 
says:  "This  ruin  is  supposed  to 
have  been  in  the  vicinity  of  the  pres 
ent  Solomonviile,  Graham  county." 
In  reaching  this  view  he  has  Coro- 
nado  pass  through  Dragoon  Pass,  not 
many  miles  east  of  Benson,  but  not 
stating  how  he  should  have  reached 
this  pass,  whether  by  coming  down 
the  San  Pedro. 


Of  Chichilticalli,  Brancroft  says: 
"Chichilticalli  has  been  generally 
identified  with  the  familiar  Casa 
Grande  of  the  Gila,  and  I  haven't 
any  reason  to  question  the  identity." 

Mr.  Thomas  E.  Farish,  Arizona 
historian,  in  his  History  of  Arizona, 
locates  Chichilticalli  "about  thirty 
miles  east  from  the  present  town  of 
Solomonviile."  I  notice  that  Mr. 
Farish  translates  Chichilticalli  as 
being  "Little  Red  House."  In  this 
ho  is  in  error.  It  means  simply  red 
house,  no  more  and  no  less,  being 
made  up  of  the  two  Aztec  words 
"chichiltic,"  red,  and  "calli,"  house. 
Little  red  house  in  Aztec  is  "chi- 
chilticatontli,"  and  big  red  house 
would  be  "chichilticapolll,"  the  di 
minutive  and  augmentative  of  Chi 
chilticalli.  Castaneda,  the  only  one 
who  has  described  the  house,  tells 
us  that  "the  house  was  large  and 
appeared  to  have  been  a  fortress." 

Colonel  James  H.  McClintock,  in 
his  most  excellent  work,  "Arizona, 
the  Youngest  State,"  locates  Chi 
chilticalli  at  "a  point  in  the  San 
Pedro  valley,  not  far  from  the  junc 
tion  of  the  San  Pedro  with  the  Gila." 
This  would  be  about  seventy-five 
miles  west  of  north  down  the  San 
Pedro  from  Benson,  or  about  forty 
miles  east  of  Casa  Grande. 

General  J.  H.  Simpson  in  the 
Smithsonian  report  for  1869,  adopts 
Casa  Grande,  but  this  was  half  a 
century  ago,  and  I  think  it  probable 
that  if  the  general  were  writing  to 
day  he  would  revise  his  views. 

Doctor  Elliott  Cones  in  his  "On 
the  Trail  of  a  Spanish  Pioneer," 
accepts  Hodge's  location  near  Solo- 
mcnville. 

Lowry,  in  his  "Spanish  Settle 
ments,"  locates  it  in  the  neighbor 
hood  of  Fort  Grant  at  the  southern 
foot  of  Mount  Graham.  Mr.  Lowry 
is  probably  as  nearly  correct  in  this 
as  he  is  in  locating  the  Santa  Cata- 
lina  mountains  on  the  eastern  side 


of  the  San  Pedro  river,  which  might 
be  quite  correct  if,  as  a  fact,  this 
range  of  mountains  were  not  on  the 
western  side  of  the  San  Pedro. 

Dallenbaugh  places  it  so  far  to 
the  east  of  and  away  from  any  pos 
sible  location  that  he  hardly  justi 
fies  quoting. 

George  Parker  Winship  in  his 
translation  of  Castaneda  and  Jara- 
millo  does  not  indicate  his  own 
choice  for  the  location  of  Chichilti- 
calli,  if  he  had  any  that  was  fixed, 
which  possibly  he  had  not,  not  being 
familiar  with  the  country,  never  hav 
ing  been  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
state,  although  he  visited  the  north 
ern  part.  While  he  quotes  Bande- 
lier,  as  he  understands  him,  he  does 
not  commit  himself 

Bandelier    a    Disappointment 

1  have  been  disappointed  on  read 
ing  Bandelier's  final  report  of  in 
vestigations  among  the  Indians  of 
the  southwestern  United  States,  to 
be  unable  to  determine  whether  he 
locates  Chichilticalli  at  Fort  Grant 
at  the  foot  of  Mt.  Graham,  in  Gra 
ham  county,  or  on  the  San  Pedro, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Arivaipa,  al 
though  the  two>  points  are  over  one 
hundred  miles  apart.  He  is  evi 
dently  confused  as  to  their  geo 
graphical  relationship,  saying  that 
Arivaipa  creek  flows  not  far  from 
Furt  Grant,  when  as  a  fact,  the  Ari 
vaipa  does  not  flow  anywhere  near 
Port  Grant.  He  knew  where  Fort 
Grant  was  situated,  because  he 
speaks  of  it  as  being  "on  the  south 
ern  foot  of  Mount  Graham."  But 
then  he  speaks  of  the  "ruin  being 
situated  where  Fort  Grant  is,  on  the 
south  of  the  Gila  river,  near  the 
Arivaipa."  Notwithstanding  the  con 
fusion  in  his  statements,  I  incline  to 
the  opinion  that  in  locating  Chichil 
ticalli  he  really  had  in  mind  some 
point  near  the  junction  of  the  Ari 
vaipa  and  the  San  Pedro.  Jaramillo's 


description  of  the  route  of  Coronado 
could  by  no  possibility  have  taken 
him  anywhere  near  there.  In  treat 
ing  this  matter  Mr.  Bandelier  fails 
to  sustain  his  high  standing  as  an 
authority. 

A   Visit   to   Chichilticalli 

Before  closing  I  will  again  revert 
to  my  own  individual  conclusions. 
You  will  have  noted  that  following 
what  seemed  to  me  to  be  the  logical 
route  from  Corazones,  I  located  Chi 
chilticalli  at  Pueblo  Viejo,  near 
Solomonville.  Then  following  the 
route  as  outlined  by  Jaramillo,  a 
member  of  the  expedition,  and  I 
was  again  led  directly  to  the  same 
point;  the  two  routes  coinciding 
exactly. 

Now,  having  located  Chichilticalli 
at  Pueblo  Viejo,  by  what  seemed  to 
me  to  be  conclusive  evidence,  it  oc 
curred  to  me  that  I  might  be  able 
to  verify  my  conclusions  by  a  per 
sonal  investigation,  and  this  I  have 
recently  made.  This  resulted  in  the 
discovery  of  what  I  have  every  rea 
son  to  believe',  to  be  the  ruin  of  the 
identical  Chichilticalli.  It  is  on  the 
banks  of  the  Gila  river,  about  three 
miles  above  Solomonville,  that  is, 
at  Pueblo  Viejo.  Locally  it  is  known 
as  Casa  Montezuma,  just  as  Casa 
Grande  is  also  known.  It  is  that  of 
a  house  150  by  150  feet  in  size. 
The  walls,  tumble-down,  of  course, 
are  still  standing  clear  around  the 
entire  building  and  reaching  above 
the  ground  from  three  to  seven  feet. 
The  ruin  is  that  of  a  building  of  a 
different  type  and  construction  from 
that  shown  by  any  other  old  ruin 
of  which  I  have  any  knowledge.  The 
walls,  still  standing,  show  the  build 
ing  to  have  been  a  combination  of 
cobblestones  and  earth;  being  quite 
close  to  the  river,  its  builders  found 
no  difficulty  in  securing  the  neces 
sary  cobblestones,  which  probably 
accounts  for  their  use  at  this  par 
ticular  point. 


AVhat  Tello  Says  in  1650 

You  will  recall  that  Castaneda, 
the  only  writer  describing  the  build 
ing  at  all,  tells  us  that  it  was  built 
of  red  earth.  While  I  have  every 
reason  to  believe  the  color  of  the 
building  to  have  been  red,  all  agree 
ing  on  that  point.  I  firmly  believe 
that  its  color  was  produced  by  its 
being  plastered  over  with  some  red 
material,  and  that  Castaneda  was 
led  astray  in  concluding  that  the  en 
tire  building  was  of  this  same  ma 
terial. 

Pray  Antonio  Tollo,  in  his  "Cron- 
ica  Miscelanea"  ( Miscellaneous 
Chronicle),  written  in  1650,  speaks 
of  the  house  as  being  daubed  or 
overlaid  with  red  earth,  not  that  it 
was  built  of  red  material,  and  from 
the  time  of  Tello's  writing,  over  two 
and  a  half  centuries  ago,  I  think  we 
are  justified  in  assuming  that  he 
had  knowledge  of  the  character  of 
the  building  other  than  that  ob 
tained  by  us  through  Castaneda's 
narrative.  Mota  Padilla,  writing  in 
1742,  confirms  Pray  Tello,  saying 
nothing  of  the  house  being  built  of 
red  earth,  but  that  it  was  plastered 
over  witlr  red  material, 

Modern  Writers  Ignore  Color 

Modern  writers  have  seemed  to 
completely  lose  sight  of  the  fact  of 
tha  house  being  red;  at  least,  they 
utterly  ignore  this  by  telling  us 
waere  it  was  located  and  then  leav 
ing  us  to  discover  where  the  red 
earth  could  have  come  from  with 
which  to  built  it,  or  any  sort  of  red 
material  with  which  to  plaster  it 
over.  One  of  the  chief  objects  of 
my  recent  visit  was  to  see  whether 
Ii  could  find  either  one  of  these  two 
things,  and  in  this  I  feel  that  I  was 
equally  successful.  About  five  hun 
dred  yards  from  the  ruin  of  the 
building,  just  as  you  go  up  out  of 
the  valley  and  on  to  the  mesa,  there 
is  a  bank  of  beautiful  red  clayey 
earth,  a  material  so  valuable  for 


read  work  that  it  is  being  hauled  as 
much  as  a  mile  and  used  in  road 
repairs.  It  packs  hard  and  makes 
a  firm  smooth  and  compact  finish. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  it  was  this 
same  material  that  fiurnished  the 
red  plaster  to  our  Chichilticalli.  Of 
course  in  those  prehistoric  times 
the  builders  of  this  old  house  had 
neither  conveyances  nor  animals  of 
any  kind  with  which  to  transport 
sufficient  material  the  five  hundred 
yards  distance  with  which  to  build 
a  house,  but  T  have  no  doubt  they 
utilized  their  women  for  the  pur 
pose,  just  as  the  natives  do  in  mod 
ern  times,  and  carried  sufficient  of 
this  material  to  the  site  of  the  build 
ing  to  plaster  it,  possibly  both  in 
side  and  out,  having  ascertained  the 
splendid  finish  that  it  would  give 
the  walls.  I  know  of  no  other  sug 
gested  site  anywhere  in  the  state 
where  the  red  material  exists  either 
tor  the  building  of  the  house  or  for 
its  plastering. 

Writers  Fail  to  Mention  Ruin 

A  singular  thing  to  me  in  connec 
tion  with  this  old  ruin  is  the  fact 
that  I  have  never  seen  any  mention 
of  it  by  any  writer,  nor  have  I  heard 
it  spoken  of  by  anyone.  This,  not 
withstanding  its  conspicuous  appear 
ance  and  unusual  construction. 
Around  it  and  in  it  are  large  quan 
tities  of  broken  pottery,  beautifully 
and  symmetrically  marked,  as  is  so 
characteristic  of  the  old  prehistoric 
pottery  of  which  so  many  broken 
pieces  are  found  in  the  vicinity  of 
these  old  ruins,  of  which  we  find  so 
many  in  the  southern  part  of  our 
state. 

After  Corpnado's  return  to  the 
City  of  Mexico  from  his  disastrous 
expedition  in  1542,  I  know  of  but 
two  instances  where  he  is  even  men 
tioned.  Pray  Antonio  Tello  tells  us 
that  in  1545  he  resigned  the  gover 
norship  of  New  Gallicia,  after  hay 
ing  served  two  years.  Winship 
speaks  of  his  being  accused  in  1547, 
five  years  after  his  return,  of  hold 
ing  more  Indians  to  labor  on  his 
estates  than  were  allowed  by  the 
royal  regulations.  I  do  not  know 
Mr.  Winship's  authority  for  his 
statement,  but  it  would  not  be  made 
by  him  without  his  being  fully  jus 
tified. 


